Nebraska Hosts First NCAA Regional

The No. 16 Nebraska women's tennis team earned its fourth consecutive bid to the NCAA tournament, and have made school history by being selected to host its first first- and second-round regional site tournament to take place on May 10-11. The selection was announced on Tuesday, April 30 with NU emerging as the fifteenth seed for the tournament. NU welcomes Wichita State, Tulsa, and UNLV to Lincoln, Neb. for the first and second rounds. All matches will be played at the Vine Street Courts in Lincoln, Neb. but will be relocated inside to the Nebraska Tennis Center in case of inclement weather. Stay tuned to Huskers.com for exact times and locations of each match.

Regional action in Lincoln begins on May 10 with the No. 16 ranked Nebraska (22-5) set to face Wichita State (15-10) and No. 24 Tulsa (19-6) heads up against No. 64 UNLV (19-7). The victor of each match advances to the second round on May 11 to determine who will move on from regional play and join the Sweet 16. These 16 teams advance to compete for the national championship title in the finals, hosted by the University of Illinois at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex/Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Ill. on May 16-21.

Wichita State qualified for the tournament after clinching the Missouri Valley Conference Championship title on April 28 in Wichita, Kan. at the Coleman Tennis Complex. UNLV also achieved conference honors by securing the Mountain West Conference Tournament title on April 28 in Colorado Springs, Colo. at at the USAFA Outdoor Courts.

Nebraska joins the tournament in hopes of capping one of its most successful seasons in history that has seen the Huskers achieve its first Big Ten Conference title, NU's first title since 1978 when it was still a member of the Big Eight Conference. The Co-Big Ten regular season champions made it to the semi-final round of the Big Ten tournament where they fell to Northwestern, who advanced to defeat Michigan and secure their fifteenth straight conference title and their fourteenth tournament title in 15 years.

A total of 64 teams participates in the NCAA tournament, including five Big Ten teams. Each team will compete in a single-elimination tournament at 16 first- and second-round sites (four teams per site) and the finals site (16-team bracket) to determine the national champion.